Start Learning Basic Spanish - What Is The Best Learning Spanish Software?

Do you want to start learning basic Spanish? Ask various people what the best way to learn Spanish is and you will get many different answers - personal Spanish teacher, traditional classes, books or audios. Interactive, modern, effective, fast...way to learn language is using computer. However what is the best learning Spanish software? I can recommend you to read this review written by Chris Pearson. I hope this will be helpfull.

Rocket Spanish

Rocket Spanish is a modern learning Spanish software. Unlike many other Spanish learning products, it can be downloaded over the Internet. It took me about 25 minutes to download it with a broadband connection. The Rocket Spanish site has a provision for dial-up Internet but I believe this would take longer to download. (There is also a provision to buy the course as a hardcopy but it is considerably more expensive than the downloaded version and will take longer to receive)

What level is Rocket Spanish?

The courses caters for people new to learning Spanish. It aims to take beginners, through intermediate levels, to an advanced knowledge of the Spanish language.

How does it teach Spanish?

The course comprises 31 lessons.
The first 12 lessons are beginner lessons. 9 intermediate lessons build on the basics. The remaining lessons are more applied and feature real life situations where you can follow a conversation, for example, in a restaurant.
Each lesson can take between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on the skill level of the student and the knowledge of the topic being covered.

How is a lesson taught?

The topics of the lesson are introduced along with any new Spanish words. The student will read through the introduction. Any Spanish words can be clicked on and the audio for the word will be heard. The audio takes the following format : first, the English equivalent is spoken, then the Spanish. Then there is a pause and the Spanish is spoken again. This gives the student a chance to speak the Spanish and practise what he/she is learning.
More examples will be given of the topic and examples of how it is used.
A variety of written and multiple choice type exercises end the lesson.
The Random button can be pushed at any time and a Spanish sentence or word from the current lesson will be spoken. This can allow the student to practise conversation and comprehension for this particular lesson.

Any other teaching methods used ?

There are two games that are used to teach :
MegaVocab - vocabulary recognition, match one of 6 pictures to a word picked at random by the software
MegaAudio – comprehension, listen to audio of a word or sentence and guess which of the 4 pictures represent the audio.
These games are useful to consolidate the knowledge learned in the lessons or as a warm up exercise before the lessons begin.
Flash cards are provided :
154 beginner flash cards
123 advanced flash cards

What is good about the course?

The course builds from beginner to advanced. It will give the student a complete grasp of the Spanish Language at the end of the course.
Random button is good for adding a bit of spontaneity to the lesson. This is useful if you have done the lesson more than once and need to freshen it up a little.

What is bad about the course?

The pictures in the megavocab are a bit misleading at times which makes guessing the correct words difficult.
You can only improve your pronunciation by listening and repeating the audio, no feedback is given by the software as to how your accent sounds.

Any bonuses?

If you are still unsure about Rocket Spanish then you can sign up for the free 6 day course . This will give you a taste of the full course and how it is taught.
Once you have bought the course, you will be sent the Rocket Spanish newsletter every fortnight. The newsletter has a new lesson in each issue.

Summary

I think the content and scope of the Rocket Spanish course represents good value. Although it will take some work for a new student to learn Spanish, Rocket Spanish can certainly make this effort easier.
Go to the Rocket Spanish website for more details and testimonials.

Author: Chris Pearson

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